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Loneliness
- This was written by Harry Nilsson, a popular songwriter who had hits as a singer with "Everybody's Talkin'" and " Without You." Nilsson was inspired to write "One" from the rhythm of a telephone busy signal that he kept hearing. This is about loneliness.
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May 30, 2018 · Arguing for abortion rights while celebrating motherhood, “One Sings” is an anthology of Ms. Varda’s other interests, including photography, documenting rural France and unconventional...
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ONE SINGS, THE OTHER DOESN'T, directed by Agnes Varda;...
- The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
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- Overview
- Singing versus speaking
- The character of Western singing
- Bel canto from the 17th to the early 19th century
- Mid-19th century departure from bel canto style
- Singing since the turn of the 20th century
singing, the production of musical tones by means of the human voice. In its physical aspect, singing has a well-defined technique that depends on the use of the lungs, which act as an air supply, or bellows; on the larynx, which acts as a reed or vibrator; on the chest and head cavities, which have the function of an amplifier, as the tube in a wi...
Singing is distinguished from speaking by the manner in which the breath is expended to vibrate the vocal cords. Singing requires more breath the louder, higher, and longer one sings. It also requires that the emission of breath be more firmly controlled. A pertinent analogy is the function of the instrumentalist’s breath in playing a reed instrument—e.g., a clarinet, an oboe, or a saxophone. The technique of singing depends ultimately on the coordination of the various anatomical mechanisms in order to produce a propulsion of sound in a steady flow. A further distinction between singing and speaking is the control that is required, in singing, of the movement and reflexes of the larynx. As one sings higher, the larynx tends to rise sympathetically and at a certain point becomes an interference causing the voice to break, or crack. Not much movement of the larynx occurs within a singer’s normal range, which is usually about an octave and a third. Beyond that range, either above or below, an element of technical accomplishment sets the professional off from the unschooled amateur.
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Western singing is distinguished above all by its volume. Singers of other cultures may have a wider range, particularly a greater upward extension; but it is doubtful that they have sung louder. Western singing is also distinguished by its concern with pure sound, with the tone quality, or timbre, and with colour, with what is felt to be the sheer beauty of the voice itself. Both singers and their listeners, in Western music more than any other, have tended to lose sight of song’s roots in language and to think of singing as a purely instrumental production.
Modern Western styles of singing largely derive from the Italian bel canto, which had its origin in a style associated with the polyphonic music of the 16th century. Because this music expressed the significance or the moods of the text, a great range of expression was required from the singers, who, in these polyphonic works, assumed something of the function of a vocal orchestra. The art of singing accordingly evolved to allow the singers the maximum power and variety of expression. (See also bel canto.)
Bel canto singing from the 17th through the early 19th century was built primarily on the recognition that the intensity of vocal tone on a single note may be increased or diminished. The varying of this intensity was known as the messa di voce. There is, however, a difference between variation in intensity and variation in volume of vocal tone. The style depended on the technique of intensity; that is, tone was varied by increasing or decreasing the air pressure on the glottal lips and not by enlarging the oral chamber, which merely resulted in a larger tonal volume. The style was also based on the principle that the voice has two “tones,” a diapason tone produced when the larynx is in a relatively low position, and a flute tone when the larynx assumes a higher position. These distinctions, however, were largely obliterated when a broader style of singing was introduced by Richard Wagner and later composers.
Physical aspects of the technique of bel canto singing demanded a stance in which the chest was raised and the stomach drawn in; the raising of the soft palate together with a corresponding lowering of the larynx; and the drawing back of the chin with the effect of opening the throat. Correct breathing was above all essential, and the Italians went so far as to declare that “he who knows how to breathe can sing.” By a contraction of the upper abdominal muscles, control is achieved over the diaphragm, which thus enables the flow of air pressure from the lungs to be kept steady. This principle, which was the basis of singing in the 18th century, was later adopted by the Spanish tenor Manuel García, who declared that “the lungs are for tone emission, the glottis is for pitch, the oral cavity is for vowel and timbre, and the front of the mouth is for consonants.” The function of the diaphragm is to regulate the pressure of air, while the larynx, as a nozzle in a water spray, determines the nature of the flow.
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Later schools of singing paid much attention to the resonation of the voice in the “mask,” that is, the cavities of the head, though this resonation did not affect the radiative power of the voice but only its volume. These singers, and also the still-later parlando singers, who effected a union of speech and singing, made a conscious use of resonation in this way and differed from the bel canto singers in that they exercised less control over physical mechanisms.
The development of the orchestra by Hector Berlioz, Giuseppe Verdi, and Wagner in the 19th century encouraged singers to seek means of amplifying their voices by methods of resonation unknown in the bel canto style, and a new method was established of “singing on resonance.” Jean de Reszke, who emphasized the function of the nose in resonation, was the main exponent of this school. Apart from the facial mask and the nose, other resonators were held to be the hard palate and the teeth.
Florid song lived on into the 20th century in the surviving operas of the older repertoire, but it tended to become stereotyped and the property of specialists. Whereas until about 1830 all singers were expected to be masters of the devices of bel canto, they were now categorized as dramatic, lyric, coloratura (specialist in florid song), and so on. The traditional range classifications of soprano, alto, tenor, and bass were also widened to admit the mezzo-soprano, the baritone, and the bass-baritone.
The second half of the 20th century produced a predictable reaction in favour of the singer, with a revival of public enthusiasm for nearly forgotten operas by Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Vincenzo Bellini, and even of the true bel canto operas of George Frideric Handel, and the emergence of singers capable of acquiring the requisite technique imposed by music that left much to the singer’s invention and discretion. The popular singer, too, relieved by the microphone of the necessity of raising his voice, and exploiting the improvisatory conventions of jazz, employed intuitively many ornaments and expressive devices nearly identical to those of bel canto. The vocal requirements of avant-garde music extended beyond those of traditional operatic singing to include wider flexibility of timbre, techniques such as Sprechstimme (musically pitched speech), and improvisational fantasy drawing on sounds formerly excluded from the trained singer’s vocal resources.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. [1] [2] [3] A person whose profession is singing is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music ). [4] [5] Singers perform music ( arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments.
In opera, tenors have several subcategories, which range from the softer sound of the tenore buffo (ten-OR-eh BOO-foh, a high-range tenor who sings comedic roles) to the bold and hefty sound of a Heldentenor (HELL-dehn-ten-OR, the term for a strong-voiced tenor who sings heroic roles in lengthy German operas). Who they are. Mature males.
One by Three Dog Night song meaning, lyric interpretation, video and chart position
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the first of seven autobiographical works by American writer Maya Angelou, published in 1969. The book chronicles her life from age 3 through age 16, recounting an unsettled and sometimes traumatic childhood that included rape and racism .
Add to word list. A1 [ I or T ] to make musical sounds with the voice, usually a tune with words: The children sang two songs by Schubert at the school concert. We were woken early by the sound of the birds singing. Your grandmother would like you to sing for/to her. [ + two objects ] Will you sing us a song /sing a song to us?
